An antibiotic widely used to treat diarrhea in travelers may also provide some relief to people with the common and difficult-to-treat condition known as irritable bowel syndrome, according to a pair of new studies in the New England Journal of Medicine.The Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved the antibiotic, rifaximin, for use in IBS, which affects as many as 1 in 5 U.S. adults. The agency is currently reviewing the drug for that purpose and is expected to make a decision in March.In the studies, 1,200 IBS patients took rifaximin or a placebo pill three times a day for two weeks. Roughly 40 percent of the patients who took the antibiotic reported substantial relief from symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain, and loose stools for at least two weeks during the subsequent month, compared with a little under one-third of the patients taking placebo. All of the patients in the studies had a form of IBS that does not involve constipation. [Read the full article]

A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines is an "elaborate fraud," according to a medical journal -- a charge the physician behind the study vigorously denies.The British medical journal BMJ, which published the results of its investigation, concluded Dr. Andrew Wakefield misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible. The journalist who wrote the BMJ articles said Thursday he believes Wakefield should face criminal charges. [Read the full article]

Here's what Katie Roche expected when she went into the hospital for spine surgery: two titanium rods, a bone graft, 17 screws in her vertebrae, eight hours in the operating room, and a week's stay in the hospital to recover.Here's what she didn't expect on top of all that: sharing a hospital room with a feverish 6-year-old and contracting a nasty bacterial infection her mother says nearly killed her."She got so weak she couldn't even get out of bed to go to the bathroom -- I had to carry her," says her mother, Kathleen Roche. "For about 48 hours, I didn't think we'd have Katie with us much longer."Because of the infection she picked up at the hospital, Katie, who was 19 at the time, dropped from 120 to 90 pounds. [Read the full article]

The controversy surrounding a retracted study that linked autism to childhood vaccines has been fueled by the fact that no one knows what really causes autism."If we knew, it would change this whole debate altogether," said CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.Researchers believe both genetics and environmental factors play a role in the development of autism spectrum disorders. According to the National Institutes of Health, researchers have "identified a number of genes associated with the disorder. Studies of people with ASD have found irregularities in several regions of the brain. [Read the full article]